Science briefs: Iconic trees of life are dying in African savanna

Iconic trees of the savanna are dying The oldest and biggest angiosperm (flowering) trees in the world, the African baobabs, are dying or already dead, scientists found. Nicknamed the “tree of life,” the Adansonia digitata L. is an icon of the savanna. Some survive for more than 2,000 years. The researchers found that since 2005, eight of the 13 oldest, and five of the six largest, African baobab trees have either died or their oldest parts or stems died. The scientists called the deaths “an event of an unprecedented magnitude.” Artistic differences with lightning strikes Researchers have found that artists tend to paint lightning with fewer branches than they electricity actually have. Gábor Horváth of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest found that painted strikes had 11 arms at most, but photographs showed as many as 51 fingers. It’s consistent with the ways humans assess numbers. Below five, we rapidly judge; between six and 10, we count; above 10, we estimate, with decreasing accuracy. Mayflower genealogies help descendants Figuring out whether you’re a descendant of a Pilgrim is now just a mouse click away. A monthslong effort to digitize and index the authenticated genealogies of Mayflower passengers is available at americanancestors.org, the New England Historic Genealogical Society said. It includes 193,000 birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records through five generations of 50 of the 51 Pilgrims known to have descendants. Tracking down the mass of ghost particles Researchers at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have started collecting data with a… [Read full story]